


Five Things Shikako Thinks She Knows Nothing About

by heartbeatstumbles



Category: Dreaming of Sunshine - Silver Queen, Naruto
Genre: Crack and angst are the only two things I know how to write and this has both, Don’t copy to another site, Gen, Silver Queen's Dreaming of Sunshine Universe, now beta read i regret to inform you we cannot die like men, written on a whim don’t take it too seriously
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-10-04 05:35:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20465864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartbeatstumbles/pseuds/heartbeatstumbles
Summary: I don’t know what they’re all talking about, really. I had just put in the time and effort to understand things, and had the luck to be born into the smartest clan possible.(An exploration of Nara Shikako’s biggest blindspot—herself.)





	1. Sealing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wafflelate](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wafflelate/gifts).

Sasuke scoffed. This was not the first time we had had this conversation. Or the second.

“I’m just saying,” Sasuke reiterated, “you seem to know a lot more about sealing than even _ Kakashi-sensei. _ Who knows about everything. In detail. All the time.”

“Kaka-Sensei is a combat jōnin! Seals can’t really be used so well in combat except for your normal knockout tags or explosives. They also can’t be expected to perform on the battlefield because the parameters for them to execute their specific function require them to be exact, for the most part. So it wouldn’t really make sense for him to know all that about them.”

“Fine. What about Jiraiya? That crusty old man was definitely impressed, Shikako. He’s one of the Sannin. You _ cannot _ deny it. You are _good _at sealing.”

Oh, Sasuke. If only you knew what happened the first time I met that crusty old man. My fundamental misunderstanding of the sealing arts was incredibly embarrassing. The look on his face was a sight to behold. But I had told him that, and he _ still _didn’t understand. 

“Oh, that’s just because I can sense natural chakra,” I said brightly. ”That’s not really something you can learn, I’m just naturally hypersensitive. I actually don’t know how everybody doesn’t. It’s always there all the time. Even in the air we breathe in. I can just....” I wriggled my fingers at him. “I can feel it.”

And, you know. I’ve been reincarnated into a manga and I’m from a world where we don’t have chakra. It’s very easy to tell the difference.

Natural chakra was _ everywhere _ here. Honestly, it was kind of annoying. Sometimes it still felt like I was drowning in it. But natural chakra was just the luminiferous aether of this world. It just....it just _ was_.

Sasuke was starting to look vaguely alarmed.

“Relax. It’s not dangerous. Well, it is dangerous. But I’m not messing with it. Much. It’s just.... it’s just _ there._”

“Oh my god, please don’t mess with that. Ever. Also, didn’t you figure out how to plant your own seals with a touch in, like, two weeks?”

I had forgotten about that. “Well, Jiraiya-sensei gave me a really good clue. And it just....worked out. It wasn’t on purpose.”

Sasuke looked a little strangled.

“What about when you overturned the logistics department? Genma said Raidō said Hayate said Aoba said that you came up with three brand new seals in less than a week and threw the Tower into chaos.”

“They weren’t new. I just reconfigured them a little. But they’re just basic storage seals.” Really. All I had done was put a better seal into mass production. It wasn’t like...._ new_. Most of it, anyways. But the only reason I was able to do that was that someone else just hadn’t put in the time to think about it. Anyone could have done it. Besides. It was mostly for revenge.

”What about the—WHAT ABOUT THE _GHOST_ WE FOUND? Aren’t you doing some top secret sealing voodoo with Tsunade to get him to—“ Sasuke waved his hands. “To _blink in and out of existence? _Which, don’t think I’ve forgotten about. I can’t believe we know a _ghost.” _

Ah, yes. My cover story for getting to read the Edo Tensei notes. Anyone could have figured that whole thing with Kisuke out, but Tsunade had just wanted to give me a chance to access the notes. Why else would she grant access in the first place?

Sasuke looked like he was going to put his head through the wall. Sometimes I didn’t really understand him. 


	2. People

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi my muse was dead in a ditch for a while but it's not anymore so uhh strap in!!
> 
> Big thanks to @drowsyivy for being willing to beta this chapter at the drop of a hat.

Life was so wild.

But it would’ve been so much worse without Shikako.

Watching her fight, Sasuke was again reminded just how much she had changed. All of them had, actually. Shikako-from-the-bell-test had really transformed into a confident and competent ninja. Both he and Naruto were more even-tempered and much better because of it. Shikako had taught them to look at a situation and analyze before they rushed in.

Having Shikako around made things with That Man so much worse. Because now Itachi _ knew _ just where to hurt him.

When Shikako was in that month-long coma, he ended up talking to Ino a lot in the hospital. 

Well, Ino talked to him a lot. 

“You know, she’ll never blame you for it. And I don’t blame you either. That was a crazy situation.”

“It was my fault. I shouldn’t have let her come in the first place.”

At that, Ino gave him a soft look. “Do you really think you could have convinced her _ not _ to go? You, Naruto, and Kakashi-sensei are her team. She cares about you guys more than she cares for most of her clan. She would never willingly stay home if you two were rushing into danger. Neither would you. That’s why you went in the first place, right?”

“....”

“I know she told you she’s not good at people. Or feelings. But she is. She changes people for the better. The Sasuke I know from the academy is nothing like the person you are now.” Ino smirked as she got up and went to leave. “I have to get to training now, but I’ll see you around. Bye, Sasuke-kun~!” She blew him a giant kiss and flipped her hair for good measure as she walked out.

Sasuke sighed at the overly cute suffix, but he watched Ino walk out of the hospital room with the ghost of a smile.

Sasuke thought back to the first day they became a team. There was no way he would have attempted to work with the others. Naruto was just useless dead weight, and she was just the girl who coughed a lot and bugged him (politely) at lunch. But even then, she had guided him and Naruto to passing the bell test. 

Even then, Sasuke hadn’t been completely sold on the idea of a team, and he knew she knew that. But in her quiet, unassuming way, she had folded him into the Nara clan. Into her life.

Sasuke would never admit it (even to himself), but he had been dangerously close to just up and leaving with the Sound Four that day. Everything had gone wrong, Naruto was suddenly ahead of him, nothing he did had any effect, and he was just so _ weak _ it hurt. After finally seeing That Man again, he wasn’t able to lay a finger on him. And he had been ready to just take a chance to become stronger. He had to protect his new team from That Man.

But Shikako found him, like always, at exactly the right time and reminded him of how strong he was. How strong he could be. And he remembered how different his life was like before she forced her way into it. He hadn’t realized the extent until she was in a coma for a month. If he’d left the village, he would never know if she was okay or not. He never wanted to feel that again.

So he stayed.

Which was a good thing, too, after finding out all that weird sh*t Orochimaru had stuffed into the seal on his shoulder. Jiraiya and Shikako had mentioned some weird stuff with natural energy and soul storage....eugh. 

He was so glad Shikako was his best friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter we got exasperated!sasuke, this chapter we get softboy!sasuke, what’s going to happen next?
> 
> Taking Care should also update within the next week.


	3. Strategy

“That’s me. The Nara without a plan.”

Sasuke was nice enough not to say anything out loud, but he was a little insulted.

The “Nara without a plan” was always able to outsmart him in spars. He easily edged her out in raw power, but her brain made up for it and more. Even though she was a genius just due to the nature of her clan, Sasuke still had his pride as the scion of the Uchiha Clan to uphold. But it was almost impossible to guess what she had up her sleeve. Every time they met, she had something new. She always had a new ridiculous invention somewhere, whether it was dropping rocks on people or an anti-Sharingan jutsu. Honestly, Sasuke had no idea what she was doing half the time. He still hadn’t forgotten that one time where he and Kakashi-sensei were training for a month and she showed up with half her soul sucked out and then launched into a theoretical treatise on the nature of souls, jutsu, and chakra to explain it. He still remembered that half-haunted look on Kakashi-sensei's face after Shikako left that day. 

His best friend was terrifying.

Looking back, she had been wrong since the beginning. Nara without a plan? Sasuke remembered that half-cursed mission to Wave, where she laid out Zabuza and Haku’s motives down in less than a minute. Even Kakashi-sensei hadn’t known about Haku standing all the way away in the forest. Then, when both he and Naruto were out of the fight, she and Kakashi-sensei neutralized _both_ of them in the blink of an eye.

Oftentimes, when looking back on missions, Sasuke wondered if she had some preternatural Nara ability to see into the future. But that would be silly. Even the Sharingan couldn’t see into the future.

....right?

At the Grass Chūnin exams was when he fully realized that she couldn’t see the future, she was just _ really really good _ at coming up with strategies on the fly. She could’ve killed Gaara with the sheer volume of explosives she used in the beginning. Somehow their fight ended with the arena trashed and Shikako still standing after fighting a _ Jinchūriki_. Sasuke was willing to bet his entire inheritance that even though Shikamaru was an unparalleled tactical genius, he wouldn’t have been able to do as well as Shikako against Gaara. Her sheer ingenuity and tenacity won in crazy situations. Which was pretty much every mission any member of Team 7 touched. Which, now that he thought about it, was probably why he and Shikako could trounce almost any enemy they came across. Sparring with the others from his year wasn't even fun anymore unless it was the two of them versus everyone else. He and Shikako were eerily in sync on the battlefield

That wasn’t even counting the insane stuff they did as Bat and Hawk. Never in his _ wildest _ dreams did Sasuke think they could actually pull off redirecting the largest river in Earth Country. And even if other villages suspected anything due to the very convenient timing, who would be able to indict Konoha?

Maybe it wasn’t strategy in the usual sense, but Shikako was always getting into weird stuff and was equally able to get out of it. Like when they did the whole Bijū thing in Mist. Despite the insanity and danger of the situation, Sasuke had never once doubted that he and Shikako would get out of their Bijū encounter more or less unscathed. And they had, while making friends with _ a creature made out of pure chakra _ to boot. Conveniently in front of their enemies and allies on the verge of a war. Right after Konoha was involved in an incident with _huge_ collateral damage.

Nara without a plan, his a*s.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> look i just Love Sasuke ok this fic turned into a Sasuke fic and I am Not Ashamed


End file.
